Unease over ‘stolen’ jets at Lagos airport
• Parties in presidency allegedly remove, share aircraft
• Court slams contempt order on NCAA, FAAN, Aero, others
• We’ll meet in court, says apex regulator
Two
Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 aircraft formerly used by Topbrass Aviation
Services Limited, a local operator, have been allegedly stolen in
Lagos.The airplanes (registration numbers 5N-TBB and 5N-TBC) have been
the focus of a legal tussle between the lessor, Seagold Investment
Limited, and Topbrass Aviation Services. Some interested parties from
the presidency, however, acquired the aircraft contrary to the orders of
the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Findings by The Guardian
revealed that the planes have been removed from their lots at the
General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA). They
are now stationed at the Aero Contractors’ Maintenance and Overhaul
(AMO) hanger but with registration numbers already wiped off. Further
investigations revealed that the jets are set for maintenance to enable
them to fly out of Lagos to an undisclosed location.
Apparently
not unaware of the development, the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on
Friday served a Contempt of Court order on the Nigeria Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), NCAA
boss, Capt. Muktar Usman, Aero Contractors, its Managing Director Capt.
Ado Sanusi and a pilot in the presidential fleet, Capt. Baba Mohammed.
But
stakeholders are worried about the development. They noted that the
alleged failure to protect investors’ interest and uphold the rule of
law are yet another low points in the integrity rating of the current
government and a red flag, which prospective foreign investors in the
new national carrier would not ignore.
The Guardian learnt that
the two 50-seater airplanes, manufactured in 2004, came into the
operations of Seagold in 2005. The company ran the offshore operations
of Chevron in Angola, while Topbrass operated for Chevron in Nigeria. In
2011, both companies, orchestrated by Chevron, signed a finance
purchase agreement for the two aircraft, for which Topbrass paid $12
million in a 30-month lease tenure, towards fully acquiring the jets.
The
Chief Executive Officer of Topbrass, Capt. Roland Iyayi, said his
company kept to the terms of agreement but the lessor later failed at
execution. Because of this and coupled with Chevron’s alleged desire to
repossess the assets for transfer to Aero Contractors on a five-year
lease, Topbrass parked both airplanes, declared a dispute with Chevron
Nigeria, and approached the court for redress in 2015.
Iyayi said
both parties later pursued an out of court settlement in 2017 and
renegotiated the terms of agreement. But at the point of concluding the
pact, “some interested parties, led by Capt. Baba Mohammed, intervened,
telling Seagold not to settle with Topbrass and still assuring that they
could recover the airplanes despite our $12 million contribution.”
Efforts
by the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika to broker a truce,
notwithstanding, “the NCAA and Capt Baba Mohammed became more
interested, asking us to produce the documents of these aircraft, which
form a part and parcel of the airplanes, but we declined.
“We
were forced to return to court for an expansive order, which was given
by the court, restraining all parties, including Topbrass, from
tampering with the aircraft until the determination of the substantive
matter. The copies were made available to parties like NCAA, FAAN, NAMA
and so on.“Despite the order, the NCAA still went ahead to provide all
the documents relating to the aircraft to Capt. Baba Mohammed. The same
NCAA, through its Director of Airworthiness Standard, wrote to us on
July 5, 2018, directing that we turn in all the papers to Capt. Baba
Mohammed.
“As at last Wednesday, I got calls from Aero
Contractors saying your aircraft are being moved into our hanger. What
is going on? Are you doing maintenance with us? I said no. They sent me
pictures of the aircraft on their apron. I called FAAN. They said they
had an instruction from Abuja to allow the aircraft to go.”Iyayi, a
former MD of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and Aero
Contractors, said: “The NCAA has a role to ensure that airlines in
Nigeria thrive. Yes, we are signatories to the Cape Town Convention,
which they are trying to hide behind to do what they are doing, but that
is not applicable in this situation. This is a finance lease, not an
operating lease arrangement.
“Our belief is that there is a group
somewhere trying to manipulate the system to the detriment of Topbrass,
doing everything to see that we are taken out of business completely.
The truth is that we have completely moved out of the rule of law to
impunity. But in the long run, it is not in the interest of the
country.”The apex regulator, NCAA, confirmed the development, saying it
was due to appear in court.
The Spokesperson of the agency, Sam
Adurogboye, said the body was established to protect the interest of all
parties in the industry. “We cannot, for any reason, do otherwise. But
since he (Iyayi) has sued us, we will meet in court.”Solicitor to
Topbrass, Chukwudi Adiukwu, said it was a case of some group of people
trying to hijack and steal airplanes, noting that the aircraft had
already been deregistered from the NCAA’s registry despite a court case
over them.
According to Adiukwu, in June 2018, a certain Engr.
Saturday climbed up and erased the registration numbers from the
aircraft, acting on the instructions of Capt. Baba Mohammed.“As it
stands today, we have commenced full contempt proceedings and already
served Form 48 on NCAA, FAAN and Aero Contractors among others. This is
to be followed by Form 49. The matter has been adjourned till September
25. This is brazen theft and shouldn’t be happening in our country or
anywhere in the world.”
The Chairman of the Airlines Operators of
Nigeria (AON), Capt. Nogie Meggission, described the matter as
embarrassing, coming at a time countries like Ghana were forging ahead.
He, however, said AON does not need to fight the authorities but should
rather insist on the right things, to protect the industry and safeguard
investment.
“The Cape Town convention or not, there is a court
injunction in place. Why not try to vacate the injunction before talking
about a convention that empowers you to forcefully acquire airplanes?”
Meggission asked.A consultant to one of the regulatory bodies said the
matter was not just a conflict between operator and regulator but a
“power show among cronies”.
He said: “Don’t forget that these are
people of the same circle that are bent on showing who has the power.
The Topbrass person is a former MD of NAMA and he knows the industry
inside out. He has called out the NCAA helmsman, even to the point of
saying he is incompetent. And those ones too wanted to deal with him.“We
should be less interested in who has the fault. Our concern should be
the implications to this industry and the to image of the country. Since
this rift started, Topbrass has laid off about 200 workers because
there is no more business. How many of them did NCAA re-absorb?
“What
kind of image are we selling to the global community, especially at a
time we are looking for investors in Nigeria Air? If we can freely
violate our own agreements, disregard rules of law and use public
offices to settle personal scores against one another, how much more
foreigners. And that is where the public should be very worried.”
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